This story is fiction, but it could unfold in Iraq or Syria or Afghanistan or Libya or the Central African Republic or Colombia or Ukraine or Gaza or the Philippines or anywhere in at least 23 countries around the world where conflicts affect children.

It was the religious elders of the Reis Shura Ulema in Afghanistan who initially apprised me of the practice of Bacha Bazi, where young boys are made to dance and then exploited sexually by the police.